Why Marketing is Going Social First
As of now, the marketing function has been the first to enter into the social media sphere. As the business function charged with communicating between brand and customer, marketers have been the first to feel the effects of a significant shift in how people communicate, consume information, and make purchasing decisions.
Marketers have run up against the walls people have built to block out traditional marketing channels. These traditional marketing techniques have become less effective as technology has become better at deterring them. DVRs erase TV commercials, satellite radio bypasses radio commercials, anti-spam ware diverts email campaigns, and caller ID and the do-not-call registry thwart telemarketers.
Clearly marketers are going on-line because they can reach their consumers there. Yet, beyond the marketing silo, social media and inbound marketing can help businesses in many ways, including improving execution on corporate strategy.
Why Corporate Strategy Should Go Social
Internally, business management can use social media platforms to facilitate communication within the firm as well as promote employee engagement and execution along corporate strategy. This application of social media is far from mature, but those firms adopting social media for these purposes have an opportunity to strengthen an entire firm's alignment between strategy and execution.
A brand identity should reflect a company's goals, values and vision. Guided by its values and vision, the company strategy is its plan of action for achieving its goals. You've heard it said again and again, but I'll say it again. Companies don't fail because their strategy is flawed. They fail because their strategy execution is flawed.
What if senior leaders applied the principles of inbound marketing to their internal brand building? Just as individuals value co-creation and content sharing as consumers, they value the same as employees. Inbound marketing isn't reacting to a change in the field of marketing. It is built on a change in people's behavior. Just as the brands who best embody the values underlying Web 2.0 will be most successful at capturing consumer loyalty (and dollars), the firms that best embody these values internally will be the most successful at engaging employees, executing on strategy, and capturing those dollars.
Yet, most firms are still trying to keep social media out of the work place.
How can marketers push their social media success beyond the marketing silo? How can leaders convince naysayers to try this experiment?
I'd like to hear your thoughts.
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